This invention provides a method for surveying, selecting, evaluating and/or servicing the tires of a vehicle or a fleet of vehicles. More specifically this invention provides a method for developing a service schedule for servicing the tires of a vehicle by optimizing the operation of the types of tires used and the manner in which they are used through the use of a computer. Furthermore, this invention provides a method for gathering vehicle data, including tire data, for a vehicle or a fleet of vehicles through the use of a portable hand held computer in the field.
In general in the past when the tire needs or requirements of a vehicle were to be evaluated an individual or individuals would visually inspect the tires or in a large fleet only a sampling of tires. The inspection may or may not involve some checking of inflation pressures and tread depth measurements. The time required to inspect a vehicle manually could be quite time consuming and usually resulted with only a summary of the numbers of tires that needed to be replaced. There was usually no evaluation as to how the tires were currently being used such as the type of tires to be used, when a tire was to be removed and the rotation sequence once removed, nor was there a detailed tabulation or summary of every vehicle within the fleet. This was because the amount of time and effort was prohibitive. Furthermore, the measurements of the tread depths and the air pressure when taken manually can also be quite time consuming and can result in errors either in reading or in transcribing to a data sheet.
It is accordingly an object of this invention to eliminate the deficiencies of the prior art.